Knowledge

Most, if not all the ideas under the heading connect & collaborate have something to do with knowledge. It is really what this is all about. They say we are in the knowledge economy now, and that knowledge, or better the people who carry it, have become the most valuable resource of modern organisations. I happen to think ‘they’ are absolutely right. So I might as well start this blog by putting down some thoughts on the subject of knowledge. Unfortunately, it is a rather difficult concept to grasp. Numerous scholars have dedicated their careers to studying the nature of knowledge, its creation and possible ways of sharing and transferring it. In this blog I really want to refrain from referencing a lot of academics, no matter how inspiring their writings have been to me. Instead, I will try to be as practical and simple as possible in the discussion of these topics.

Coming back to knowledge, there is an important distinction to make between information and knowledge. Information (aka explicit knowledge) is codified, meaning that it is easy to communicate and to share. You might be able to write it down, store it and send it to someone. 

Knowledge (aka tacit knowledge), on the other hand, resides deep inside of individuals and cannot be easily communicated or explained. Think of it as ‘understanding’ or just ‘knowing’, for example how to ride a bike. If our knowledge is an iceberg, information is only the small tip that becomes visible above the water.

Now of course information is important to us. It’s the stuff that we store in databases and send around via e-mails or virtual networks. But it is our deeper knowledge, which enables us to make sense of this information and to put it to productive use. One doesn’t work without the other, and the way they play together is the really interesting story:

When people interact with each other, a lot of exchange and transformation goes on. Information is exchanged; knowledge can be converted into information and passed on; and using new information in novel ways creates new knowledge. It is through this interactive process that people and, in extension, organizations are learning. This ‘learning’ is what organisations should be really interested in – this is where new knowledge is created to fuel innovation processes and to make work more efficient and productive.